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February 17, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Popular -- vintage wisdom for a modern geek - Maya Van Wagenen (2014) - bio
Comes highly recommended by people at Penguin - London. From Amazon: Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at “pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?
The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
January 29, 2014 - Karen G - ISB The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine (translated from Arabic by a Lebanese author)
School Library Journal (September 1, 2013)
Gr 8 Up-Forced to supplement her family's income, Faten must leave behind her village, friends, and schooling to work as a maid in Beirut for a family with two daughters and an unkind, demanding housewife. As she goes about her daily chores, she dreams of returning to school and becoming a nurse in the war-torn city. With the aid of another housekeeper in her building, she seeks help from an admired stranger in the building across the street. Marwan not only facilitates the testing Faten will need to enter college, but he also becomes her clandestine love interest. The teen's plans suddenly come to a halt when her employer discovers that she has lied to them about the days she spent away from work to take her baccalaureate exams. Suddenly, Faten is unemployed and sent back to her hometown where she must convince her angry father that investing in her education will bring the family more money than she makes as a housekeeper. Faten creates an ambitious and independent plan to continue her studies and return to Beirut. This quick, straightforward, Cinderella story mirrors the plight of young girls all over the world who are forced to sacrifice their own goals to support their families. However, this modern-day fairy tale abandons the prince as the problem solver and instead features a heroine whose talent, work ethic, and ambition break the spell of servitude and poverty January 14, 2014 - Virginia - IST.
Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library- Grabenstein, Chris (2013)- mystery.
Booklist Grades 4-7. This book will appeal to video gamers, board gamers, library lovers, and mystery fans.
"Here’s an instantly engaging and wildly creative mystery that is sure to have readers looking at their humble local library in a new light. Mr. Lemoncello is an eccentric game designer who has just funded a very special new library in his hometown. In honor of the grand opening, Lemoncello has selected a dozen 12-year-olds to participate in an overnight lock-in event at the library. But when the kids wake up, they discover a new and unexpected game is afoot: whoever can find a way out of Mr. Lemoncello’s library will win the grand prize. Avid readers will get a kick out of the references to classic and current children’s literature as the kids solve clues to escape and win the game. Main character Kyle Keeley works hard to beat his nemesis, the conniving bully Charles Chilington, who constantly reminds everyone that he is always successful. As Lemoncello says, “knowledge not shared remains unknown,” and the group learns that working together just might be the key to solving the mystery. An ode to libraries and literature that is a worthy successor to the original madman riddle master himself, Willy Wonka." — Sarah Bean Thompson
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
A game for swallows : to die, to leave, to return - Zeina Abirached (2012) Booklist (August 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 22))
Grades 9-12. A casual browser could be forgiven for picking up this graphic novel and not realizing it wasn’t Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2003) until a fair way in. With its childlike visual stylization and stark black-and-white forms depicting the life of a young girl in a Middle Eastern country at war, this screams out for comparison to Satrapi’s classic. However, while Persepolis examined the political and religious ramifications on a nation through the life of one growing child, Abirached’s tale focuses tightly on people and their deep ties to one another as neighbors gather in the Beirut apartment of Zeina and her little brother while they await their parents’ return from across a city under siege. As she puts an accessible face on a foreign culture through her characters, Abirached also distinguishes her piece with striking and unique design work. Her use of heavily contrasted black-and-white spaces, as well as elegant flourishes like crowding an anxious room with ticks and tocks, suggests an impressive new talent following in the footsteps of an established master.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz (2012) - coming of age Booklist (January 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 9))
Grades 9-12. When Aristotle and Dante meet, in the summer of 1987, they are 15-year-olds existing in “the universe between boys and men.” The two are opposites in most ways: Dante is sure of his place in the world, while Ari feels he may never know who he is or what he wants. But both are thoughtful about their feelings and interactions with others, and this title is primarily focused on the back-and-forth in their relationship over the course of a year. Family issues take center stage, as well as issues of Mexican identity, but the heart of the novel is Dante’s openness about his homosexuality and Ari’s suppression of his. Sáenz (Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, 2004) writes toward the end of the novel that “to be careful with people and words was a rare and beautiful thing.” And that’s exactly what Sáenz does—he treats his characters carefully, giving them space and time to find their place in the world, and to find each other. This moves at a slower pace than many YA novels, but patient readers, and those struggling with their own sexuality, may find it to be a thought-provoking read.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Paperboy - Vince Vawter (2013) - Coming of age Booklist starred (April 15, 2013 (Vol. 109, No. 16)) Grades 6-8. It’s hot in Memphis during the summer of 1959—in all kinds of ways. Things heat up for the book’s 11-year-old narrator when he takes over his pal Rat’s paper route; meeting new people is a horror for the boy because he stutters. He only really feels comfortable with Rat and Mam, the African American maid who takes care of him when his parents are away, which is often. But being the paperboy forces him to engage in the world and to ask for payments from customers, like pretty, hard-drinking Mrs. Worthington and Mr. Spiro, who gives the boy the confidence to voice his questions and then offers answers that—wondrously—elicit more questions. Others intrude on his life as well. In a shocking scene, Ara T, the dangerous, disturbing junk man tries to take something precious from the boy. In some ways, the story is a set piece, albeit a very good one: the well-crafted characters, hot Southern summer, and coming-of-age events are reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird. But this has added dimension in the way it brilliantly gets readers inside the head of a boy who stutters. First-time author Vawter has lived this story, so he is able to write movingly about what it’s like to have words exploding in your head with no reasonable exit. This paperboy is a fighter, and his hope fortifies and satisfies in equal measure.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB The revolution of Evelyn Serrano - Sonia Manzano (2012) - family fiction Booklist starred (October 15, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 4))
Grades 6-9. Starting with the title, this wry, moving debut novel does a great job of blending the personal and the political without denigrating either. Growing up in the Puerto Rican East Harlem barrio in 1969, Rosa, 14, changes her name to Evelyn and tries to be more mainstream. Then her activist abuela arrives from Puerto Rico and moves in, and Evelyn feels as if she’s found “an older overdone version of me.” Abuela inspires Evelyn to join the Young Lords, the political activists who are working closely with the Black Panthers and fighting for Puerto Rican rights. But Evelyn’s mama does not approve, especially when the activists occupy the neighborhood church to demand food and shelter for the poor. Evelyn’s first-person narrative is filled with irreverent one-liners, but it never denies the realism of daily struggle: the “heat and stink of our neighborhood.” Rooted in the author’s own experience, the teen’s intense narrative is set against real-life political events (reports from the New York Times are documented in an appendix), while the family drama and revelations continue right up to the end.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The girl who soared over Fairyland and cut the moon in two - Catherynne M. Valente (2013) - fantasy Booklist starred (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 5-8. Plucky September makes her way back to Valente’s marvelous, mesmerizing fairyland, following her previous trip, in The Girl Who Fell beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (2012). But this time, she’s a seasoned traveler: a bit older, a bit wiser, and ready to start acting like the 14-year-old young lady she’s expected to be. September swoops into fairyland, along with her growing-flashier-by-the-minute Model A Ford, and discovers a land so beset by rules and regulations that she must receive an official profession—she’s named “royal scofflaw, professional revolutionary, and criminal of the realm”—prior to entering. But before she can get to adventuring, she’s tasked with delivering a package to the moon, which has begun to shudder and shake with moonquakes because a terrible yeti is trying to break it to pieces. September and her friends traverse the moon, meet their fates, encounter older and younger versions of themselves, and wonder what, exactly, makes them who they are—all while trying to find the speedy yeti and stop him from his destructive plans. As usual, Valente enlightens readers with pearly gleams of wisdom about honesty, identity, free will, and growing up. September often worries who she should be and what path she should follow, but the lovely truth, tenderly told, is that it’s all up to her. Thanks to a dramatic cliff-hanger ending, there is sure to be more empowerment and whimsy to come.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The great trouble : a mystery of London, the blue death, and a boy called Eel - Deborah Hopkins (2013) - mystery Booklist (October 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 4))
Grades 5-8. Equal parts medical mystery, historical novel, and survival story about the 1854 London cholera outbreak, this introduces Eel, a boy trying to make ends meet on Broad Street. When he visits one of his regular employers, he learns the man has fallen ill. Eel enlists the help of Dr. Snow, and together they work to solve the mystery of what exactly is causing the spread of cholera and how they can prevent it. Steeped in rich fact and detailed explanations about laboratory research, Hopkinson’s book uses a fictional story to teach readers about science, medicine, and history—and works in a few real-life characters, too. Eel serves as a peek into the lower class of London society and offers readers a way to observe—and, hopefully, ask questions about—the scientific method. An author’s note provides readers with a look at the real story behind the novel, making this a great choice for introducing readers to science and history. January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB All Our Yesterdays - Cristin Terrill (2013) - scifi/time travel
Booklist (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 8-11. It’s an age-old philosophical exercise: If you could go back and kill someone before he or she grew up to do terrible things, would you? What if that person was someone you cared for? It’s a dilemma Em is used to. She and her companion Finn have escaped from their prison cell 14 times in order to go back in time four years to prevent their best friend James, a 17-year-old genius, from creating a time machine that leads to a world at the edge of ruin. Now they’re out of options: this time James must die. Terrill’s smart, fast-paced debut intercuts Em and Finn’s pursuit with that of, well, the four-years-younger Em and Finn it pursued—a literary situation ripe for confusion. But Terrill avoids unnecessary brain melt by keeping things remarkably clear and never at the expense of character or emotion. It is, in fact, rather heartbreaking to watch characters come to terms with their past—or worse, their future selves and the evils they have created. A savvy blend of sf, action, and even politics.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Breathe - Sarah Crossan (2013) - dystopian fiction
Booklist (September 1, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 1))
Grades 7-10. In a postapocalyptic world in which oxygen levels are dangerously low and vegetation has died off, the Pod houses survivors of the Switch. Quinn is a Premium; his father’s position as a director at Breathe affords him many luxuries, if not his parents’ love, including enough oxygen tanks to exercise. Bea, his best friend and budding love interest, is a smart Auxiliary who lives in poverty on a limited air supply. Alina is a member of the Resistance, which is plotting against the Pod Ministry. Together, the teens escape to the Outlands and discover a hidden enclave called the Grove, where trees are being grown and resisters are learning to breathe on reduced oxygen levels. A drifter named Maude Blue is also along for the ride, supplying some dark comedy. Short cliff-hanger chapters alternate between the three teens’ points of view and build to an ending that will leave fans breathless for the next one. Offer this suspenseful debut to fans of Veronica Roth’s Divergent books or Patrick Ness’ superior Chaos Walking trilogy.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB The Day My Father Became a Bush - Joke Van Leeuwen (2014) -
Booklist (October 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 4))
Grades 5-8. Toda lives with her father above the bakery where he makes 20 different scrumptious pastries every morning. Her mother left a long time ago; she couldn’t cope. Toda’s father enlists to fight in the war in “the south” and leaves Toda with her Gran. When the bombing gets too close, her Gran sends her across the border to live with her mother. And so begins a strange, harrowing journey on buses through forests to welfare homes and agencies, attached to bitter strangers, themselves put upon by the strains of wartime, all in search of a mother she doesn’t know. Toda experiences her exodus with the struggles, hopes, and misunderstandings of a child, and van Leeuwen compounds this sense of confusion by omitting details about the setting. Warm, odd pen-and-ink sketches dot the narrative, adding to the childlike sensibility. By turns charming and disquieting, this challenging slip of a novel offers deep and genuine thoughts about the intersections of war and family.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Seeing Red - Kathryn Erskine (2012) - Historical fiction
Grades 5-8. The year is 1972 and things are changing in tiny Stony Gap, Virginia. There’s a For Sale sign in front of 12-year-old Red Porter’s house; his daddy has died, and now his mama must sell both the house and their combination garage (“Porter’s: We Fix It Right”) and convenience store (“What-U-Want”). Worse, she then plans to move the family to Ohio. Red is determined to stop her, but what can one 12-year-old do? When he turns to a local gang for help, he unwittingly finds himself complicit in a case of racial bigotry that leaves his friend Thomas injured and Red riddled with guilt. Meanwhile, school has started, and he has a new teacher whose passion is history. “History’s boring and stupid,” Red protests—but it’s history that may offer him and his family a way to remain in Stony Gap. In the process of attempting to right a century-old wrong, Red learns the salutary lesson that he can make his own history. Erskine has written a powerful indictment of injustice in all forms and an equally powerful and dramatic demonstration that young people, by taking individual action, can actually change history. This is an important book that deserves the widest possible readership.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, IS Perfect Ruin - Lauren DeStefano (2013) - dystopian fiction
Grades 7-10. Morgan Stockhour, along with her family and friends, lives in Internment, a city that floats in the sky. It’s surrounded by a train line; go beyond the trains and you come to the edge. Below is “the ground,” almost imperceptible to the Internment residents, who were banished from there generations ago, supposedly for their demands and curiosity. Morgan’s brother, Lex, is one of the currently curious, an edge “jumper,” who became blinded in the process—and put his family under the king’s suspicion. Morgan and Lex’s relationship has become strained, but she does have a strong support system in her sister-in-law; her betrothed, Basil; and her best friend, Pen. When a young girl turns up murdered, the myth of a safe, serene community is extinguished. A chance encounter with the escaped murderer makes Morgan question all that she’s been taught to believe and leads her down a rabbit hole of surprise, suspicion, and conspiracy. DeStefano has created a perfect storm—intertwining plot, characters, and setting beautifully. From the first page, readers will be enticed by Morgan’s voice, precise in its descriptions yet filled with curiosity. Internment becomes practically a character in itself, and what at first seems an almost magical place, surrounded by stars, will eventually stifle readers, as it does Morgan. The story’s framework is expandable enough to encompass tenderness, tension, and surprise. This is a page-turner, and waiting for the next book will be hard, hard, hard. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: DeStefano, author of the New York Times best-selling Chemical Garden series, has a boatload of fans. The promotion for this will garner more.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Temple Grandin - Sy Montgomery (2012) - biography
Grades 4-8. It isn’t easy to describe how the mind of someone with autism works, but Montgomery’s biography effectively breaks the disorder down for a younger audience while introducing the extraordinary life of activist Temple Grandin. When Grandin was a child, she was withdrawn and unable to communicate. In 1950, at the age of three, she received an unheard-of diagnosis: autism. Grandin’s mind thinks visually, in pictures, much the way it is believed that animals think. As such, she is empathetic to their needs and has advocated for the humane treatment of livestock by redesigning cattle facilities to be cruelty-free. In the early chapters, Montgomery’s narrative jumps back and forth in time with disjointed results, but it smoothes out as the book progresses. Grandin’s story presents autism as a gift, and her I like the way I think attitude will be inspiring to many. With informational sidebars, photos, and blueprints for humane animal-processing facilities—as well as extensive back matter, including Temple’s Advice for Kids on the Spectrum and resources—this title will be useful for educators and kids in discussing the prevalent, often misunderstood disorder.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB Dancer, daughter, traitor, spy - Elizabeth Wein (2013) - historical fiction
From: Booklist starred (September 1, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 1))
Grades 8-11. Marya is a talented dancer like her mother, Sveta, but they are government pets in a strictly controlled society full of secrecy, where one small misstep can lead to sudden and permanent consequences. When their ruler dies and Sveta vanishes, Marya and her father plot an escape. But this is not a dystopian fantasy. Marya lives in Moscow in 1982, and like many Jews during the Cold War, she and her father immigrate to Brooklyn, settling in Little Odessa under assumed names. When Marya’s uncle Gosha arrives, bringing with him a suitcase full of potentially dangerous secrets, Marya weighs the value of the information against the ease of staying under the radar, all the while doubting her father’s grip on reality. But in a world where nothing makes sense, what is sanity? Despite the dire circumstances, Marya’s passion for music and desire for a normal teenage life shine through. Flipping through new record albums is just as suspenseful and full of discovery as a chase scene with guns drawn. This atmospheric, suspenseful story is one of devotion and deception, innocence and independence, friendship and love, music and dance, immigration and coming of age. With its language and overall sense of unease, this debut should have multifaceted appeal.
December 13, 2013 - Nadine, ISB The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls - Legrand,Claire (2012)
From: Booklist (December 1, 2012 (Online)
Grades 4-7. The town of Belleville likes things to be perfect, and no one is more in agreement than 12-year-old Victoria: perfect student, perfect daughter. She takes on a fellow classmate—the imperfect Lawrence—as a project, but he’s also her only friend, so when he disappears, the determined Victoria sets out to find him. She knows where to look, too: the home for orphan boys and girls run by the seemingly sweet but truly diabolical Mrs. Cavendish. First-time author Legrand sets everything up beautifully, but once Victoria gets scooped up by Mrs. Cavendish, the story descends into something more ugly than scary, especially when Victoria is thrown into the “hanger” to be assaulted with disgusting bugs and sad visions. Nor do the reasons for Mrs. Cavendish’s actions ever make much sense. Even sadists usually have a story they tell to justify themselves. Still, this has many of the elements that endeared readers to books like Roald Dahl’s Matilda (1988) and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events titles. It’s also a handsome piece of bookmaking, with the art adding much to the package.
December 13, 2013 - Nadine, ISB Etiquette & Espionage - Gail Carriger (2013)
From Follett: Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education. Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore.
How to post a nomination
February 17, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Popular -- vintage wisdom for a modern geek - Maya Van Wagenen (2014) - bio
Comes highly recommended by people at Penguin - London.
From Amazon: Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at “pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?
The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
January 29, 2014 - Karen G - ISB
The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine (translated from Arabic by a Lebanese author)
School Library Journal (September 1, 2013)
Gr 8 Up-Forced to supplement her family's income, Faten must leave behind her village, friends, and schooling to work as a maid in Beirut for a family with two daughters and an unkind, demanding housewife. As she goes about her daily chores, she dreams of returning to school and becoming a nurse in the war-torn city. With the aid of another housekeeper in her building, she seeks help from an admired stranger in the building across the street. Marwan not only facilitates the testing Faten will need to enter college, but he also becomes her clandestine love interest. The teen's plans suddenly come to a halt when her employer discovers that she has lied to them about the days she spent away from work to take her baccalaureate exams. Suddenly, Faten is unemployed and sent back to her hometown where she must convince her angry father that investing in her education will bring the family more money than she makes as a housekeeper. Faten creates an ambitious and independent plan to continue her studies and return to Beirut. This quick, straightforward, Cinderella story mirrors the plight of young girls all over the world who are forced to sacrifice their own goals to support their families. However, this modern-day fairy tale abandons the prince as the problem solver and instead features a heroine whose talent, work ethic, and ambition break the spell of servitude and povertyJanuary 14, 2014 - Virginia - IST.
Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library- Grabenstein, Chris (2013)- mystery.
Booklist
Grades 4-7. This book will appeal to video gamers, board gamers, library lovers, and mystery fans.
"Here’s an instantly engaging and wildly creative mystery that is sure to have readers looking at their humble local library in a new light. Mr. Lemoncello is an eccentric game designer who has just funded a very special new library in his hometown. In honor of the grand opening, Lemoncello has selected a dozen 12-year-olds to participate in an overnight lock-in event at the library. But when the kids wake up, they discover a new and unexpected game is afoot: whoever can find a way out of Mr. Lemoncello’s library will win the grand prize. Avid readers will get a kick out of the references to classic and current children’s literature as the kids solve clues to escape and win the game. Main character Kyle Keeley works hard to beat his nemesis, the conniving bully Charles Chilington, who constantly reminds everyone that he is always successful. As Lemoncello says, “knowledge not shared remains unknown,” and the group learns that working together just might be the key to solving the mystery. An ode to libraries and literature that is a worthy successor to the original madman riddle master himself, Willy Wonka."
— Sarah Bean Thompson
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
A game for swallows : to die, to leave, to return - Zeina Abirached (2012)
Booklist (August 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 22))
Grades 9-12. A casual browser could be forgiven for picking up this graphic novel and not realizing it wasn’t Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2003) until a fair way in. With its childlike visual stylization and stark black-and-white forms depicting the life of a young girl in a Middle Eastern country at war, this screams out for comparison to Satrapi’s classic. However, while Persepolis examined the political and religious ramifications on a nation through the life of one growing child, Abirached’s tale focuses tightly on people and their deep ties to one another as neighbors gather in the Beirut apartment of Zeina and her little brother while they await their parents’ return from across a city under siege. As she puts an accessible face on a foreign culture through her characters, Abirached also distinguishes her piece with striking and unique design work. Her use of heavily contrasted black-and-white spaces, as well as elegant flourishes like crowding an anxious room with ticks and tocks, suggests an impressive new talent following in the footsteps of an established master.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz (2012) - coming of age
Booklist (January 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 9))
Grades 9-12. When Aristotle and Dante meet, in the summer of 1987, they are 15-year-olds existing in “the universe between boys and men.” The two are opposites in most ways: Dante is sure of his place in the world, while Ari feels he may never know who he is or what he wants. But both are thoughtful about their feelings and interactions with others, and this title is primarily focused on the back-and-forth in their relationship over the course of a year. Family issues take center stage, as well as issues of Mexican identity, but the heart of the novel is Dante’s openness about his homosexuality and Ari’s suppression of his. Sáenz (Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, 2004) writes toward the end of the novel that “to be careful with people and words was a rare and beautiful thing.” And that’s exactly what Sáenz does—he treats his characters carefully, giving them space and time to find their place in the world, and to find each other. This moves at a slower pace than many YA novels, but patient readers, and those struggling with their own sexuality, may find it to be a thought-provoking read.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Paperboy - Vince Vawter (2013) - Coming of age
Booklist starred (April 15, 2013 (Vol. 109, No. 16))
Grades 6-8. It’s hot in Memphis during the summer of 1959—in all kinds of ways. Things heat up for the book’s 11-year-old narrator when he takes over his pal Rat’s paper route; meeting new people is a horror for the boy because he stutters. He only really feels comfortable with Rat and Mam, the African American maid who takes care of him when his parents are away, which is often. But being the paperboy forces him to engage in the world and to ask for payments from customers, like pretty, hard-drinking Mrs. Worthington and Mr. Spiro, who gives the boy the confidence to voice his questions and then offers answers that—wondrously—elicit more questions. Others intrude on his life as well. In a shocking scene, Ara T, the dangerous, disturbing junk man tries to take something precious from the boy. In some ways, the story is a set piece, albeit a very good one: the well-crafted characters, hot Southern summer, and coming-of-age events are reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird. But this has added dimension in the way it brilliantly gets readers inside the head of a boy who stutters. First-time author Vawter has lived this story, so he is able to write movingly about what it’s like to have words exploding in your head with no reasonable exit. This paperboy is a fighter, and his hope fortifies and satisfies in equal measure.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The revolution of Evelyn Serrano - Sonia Manzano (2012) - family fiction
Booklist starred (October 15, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 4))
Grades 6-9. Starting with the title, this wry, moving debut novel does a great job of blending the personal and the political without denigrating either. Growing up in the Puerto Rican East Harlem barrio in 1969, Rosa, 14, changes her name to Evelyn and tries to be more mainstream. Then her activist abuela arrives from Puerto Rico and moves in, and Evelyn feels as if she’s found “an older overdone version of me.” Abuela inspires Evelyn to join the Young Lords, the political activists who are working closely with the Black Panthers and fighting for Puerto Rican rights. But Evelyn’s mama does not approve, especially when the activists occupy the neighborhood church to demand food and shelter for the poor. Evelyn’s first-person narrative is filled with irreverent one-liners, but it never denies the realism of daily struggle: the “heat and stink of our neighborhood.” Rooted in the author’s own experience, the teen’s intense narrative is set against real-life political events (reports from the New York Times are documented in an appendix), while the family drama and revelations continue right up to the end.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The girl who soared over Fairyland and cut the moon in two - Catherynne M. Valente (2013) - fantasy
Booklist starred (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 5-8. Plucky September makes her way back to Valente’s marvelous, mesmerizing fairyland, following her previous trip, in The Girl Who Fell beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (2012). But this time, she’s a seasoned traveler: a bit older, a bit wiser, and ready to start acting like the 14-year-old young lady she’s expected to be. September swoops into fairyland, along with her growing-flashier-by-the-minute Model A Ford, and discovers a land so beset by rules and regulations that she must receive an official profession—she’s named “royal scofflaw, professional revolutionary, and criminal of the realm”—prior to entering. But before she can get to adventuring, she’s tasked with delivering a package to the moon, which has begun to shudder and shake with moonquakes because a terrible yeti is trying to break it to pieces. September and her friends traverse the moon, meet their fates, encounter older and younger versions of themselves, and wonder what, exactly, makes them who they are—all while trying to find the speedy yeti and stop him from his destructive plans. As usual, Valente enlightens readers with pearly gleams of wisdom about honesty, identity, free will, and growing up. September often worries who she should be and what path she should follow, but the lovely truth, tenderly told, is that it’s all up to her. Thanks to a dramatic cliff-hanger ending, there is sure to be more empowerment and whimsy to come.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The great trouble : a mystery of London, the blue death, and a boy called Eel - Deborah Hopkins (2013) - mystery
Booklist (October 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 4))
Grades 5-8. Equal parts medical mystery, historical novel, and survival story about the 1854 London cholera outbreak, this introduces Eel, a boy trying to make ends meet on Broad Street. When he visits one of his regular employers, he learns the man has fallen ill. Eel enlists the help of Dr. Snow, and together they work to solve the mystery of what exactly is causing the spread of cholera and how they can prevent it. Steeped in rich fact and detailed explanations about laboratory research, Hopkinson’s book uses a fictional story to teach readers about science, medicine, and history—and works in a few real-life characters, too. Eel serves as a peek into the lower class of London society and offers readers a way to observe—and, hopefully, ask questions about—the scientific method. An author’s note provides readers with a look at the real story behind the novel, making this a great choice for introducing readers to science and history.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
All Our Yesterdays - Cristin Terrill (2013) - scifi/time travel
Booklist (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 8-11. It’s an age-old philosophical exercise: If you could go back and kill someone before he or she grew up to do terrible things, would you? What if that person was someone you cared for? It’s a dilemma Em is used to. She and her companion Finn have escaped from their prison cell 14 times in order to go back in time four years to prevent their best friend James, a 17-year-old genius, from creating a time machine that leads to a world at the edge of ruin. Now they’re out of options: this time James must die. Terrill’s smart, fast-paced debut intercuts Em and Finn’s pursuit with that of, well, the four-years-younger Em and Finn it pursued—a literary situation ripe for confusion. But Terrill avoids unnecessary brain melt by keeping things remarkably clear and never at the expense of character or emotion. It is, in fact, rather heartbreaking to watch characters come to terms with their past—or worse, their future selves and the evils they have created. A savvy blend of sf, action, and even politics.January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Breathe - Sarah Crossan (2013) - dystopian fiction
Booklist (September 1, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 1))
Grades 7-10. In a postapocalyptic world in which oxygen levels are dangerously low and vegetation has died off, the Pod houses survivors of the Switch. Quinn is a Premium; his father’s position as a director at Breathe affords him many luxuries, if not his parents’ love, including enough oxygen tanks to exercise. Bea, his best friend and budding love interest, is a smart Auxiliary who lives in poverty on a limited air supply. Alina is a member of the Resistance, which is plotting against the Pod Ministry. Together, the teens escape to the Outlands and discover a hidden enclave called the Grove, where trees are being grown and resisters are learning to breathe on reduced oxygen levels. A drifter named Maude Blue is also along for the ride, supplying some dark comedy. Short cliff-hanger chapters alternate between the three teens’ points of view and build to an ending that will leave fans breathless for the next one. Offer this suspenseful debut to fans of Veronica Roth’s Divergent books or Patrick Ness’ superior Chaos Walking trilogy.January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
The Day My Father Became a Bush - Joke Van Leeuwen (2014) -
Booklist (October 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 4))
Grades 5-8. Toda lives with her father above the bakery where he makes 20 different scrumptious pastries every morning. Her mother left a long time ago; she couldn’t cope. Toda’s father enlists to fight in the war in “the south” and leaves Toda with her Gran. When the bombing gets too close, her Gran sends her across the border to live with her mother. And so begins a strange, harrowing journey on buses through forests to welfare homes and agencies, attached to bitter strangers, themselves put upon by the strains of wartime, all in search of a mother she doesn’t know. Toda experiences her exodus with the struggles, hopes, and misunderstandings of a child, and van Leeuwen compounds this sense of confusion by omitting details about the setting. Warm, odd pen-and-ink sketches dot the narrative, adding to the childlike sensibility. By turns charming and disquieting, this challenging slip of a novel offers deep and genuine thoughts about the intersections of war and family.January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Seeing Red - Kathryn Erskine (2012) - Historical fiction
Booklist starred (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 5-8. The year is 1972 and things are changing in tiny Stony Gap, Virginia. There’s a For Sale sign in front of 12-year-old Red Porter’s house; his daddy has died, and now his mama must sell both the house and their combination garage (“Porter’s: We Fix It Right”) and convenience store (“What-U-Want”). Worse, she then plans to move the family to Ohio. Red is determined to stop her, but what can one 12-year-old do? When he turns to a local gang for help, he unwittingly finds himself complicit in a case of racial bigotry that leaves his friend Thomas injured and Red riddled with guilt. Meanwhile, school has started, and he has a new teacher whose passion is history. “History’s boring and stupid,” Red protests—but it’s history that may offer him and his family a way to remain in Stony Gap. In the process of attempting to right a century-old wrong, Red learns the salutary lesson that he can make his own history. Erskine has written a powerful indictment of injustice in all forms and an equally powerful and dramatic demonstration that young people, by taking individual action, can actually change history. This is an important book that deserves the widest possible readership.
January 12, 2014 - Nadine, IS
Perfect Ruin - Lauren DeStefano (2013) - dystopian fiction
Booklist starred (September 15, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 2))
Grades 7-10. Morgan Stockhour, along with her family and friends, lives in Internment, a city that floats in the sky. It’s surrounded by a train line; go beyond the trains and you come to the edge. Below is “the ground,” almost imperceptible to the Internment residents, who were banished from there generations ago, supposedly for their demands and curiosity. Morgan’s brother, Lex, is one of the currently curious, an edge “jumper,” who became blinded in the process—and put his family under the king’s suspicion. Morgan and Lex’s relationship has become strained, but she does have a strong support system in her sister-in-law; her betrothed, Basil; and her best friend, Pen. When a young girl turns up murdered, the myth of a safe, serene community is extinguished. A chance encounter with the escaped murderer makes Morgan question all that she’s been taught to believe and leads her down a rabbit hole of surprise, suspicion, and conspiracy. DeStefano has created a perfect storm—intertwining plot, characters, and setting beautifully. From the first page, readers will be enticed by Morgan’s voice, precise in its descriptions yet filled with curiosity. Internment becomes practically a character in itself, and what at first seems an almost magical place, surrounded by stars, will eventually stifle readers, as it does Morgan. The story’s framework is expandable enough to encompass tenderness, tension, and surprise. This is a page-turner, and waiting for the next book will be hard, hard, hard. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: DeStefano, author of the New York Times best-selling Chemical Garden series, has a boatload of fans. The promotion for this will garner more.January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Temple Grandin - Sy Montgomery (2012) - biography
From: Booklist (March 15, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 14))
Grades 4-8. It isn’t easy to describe how the mind of someone with autism works, but Montgomery’s biography effectively breaks the disorder down for a younger audience while introducing the extraordinary life of activist Temple Grandin. When Grandin was a child, she was withdrawn and unable to communicate. In 1950, at the age of three, she received an unheard-of diagnosis: autism. Grandin’s mind thinks visually, in pictures, much the way it is believed that animals think. As such, she is empathetic to their needs and has advocated for the humane treatment of livestock by redesigning cattle facilities to be cruelty-free. In the early chapters, Montgomery’s narrative jumps back and forth in time with disjointed results, but it smoothes out as the book progresses. Grandin’s story presents autism as a gift, and her I like the way I think attitude will be inspiring to many. With informational sidebars, photos, and blueprints for humane animal-processing facilities—as well as extensive back matter, including Temple’s Advice for Kids on the Spectrum and resources—this title will be useful for educators and kids in discussing the prevalent, often misunderstood disorder.January 12, 2014 - Nadine, ISB
Dancer, daughter, traitor, spy - Elizabeth Wein (2013) - historical fiction
From: Booklist starred (September 1, 2013 (Vol. 110, No. 1))
Grades 8-11. Marya is a talented dancer like her mother, Sveta, but they are government pets in a strictly controlled society full of secrecy, where one small misstep can lead to sudden and permanent consequences. When their ruler dies and Sveta vanishes, Marya and her father plot an escape. But this is not a dystopian fantasy. Marya lives in Moscow in 1982, and like many Jews during the Cold War, she and her father immigrate to Brooklyn, settling in Little Odessa under assumed names. When Marya’s uncle Gosha arrives, bringing with him a suitcase full of potentially dangerous secrets, Marya weighs the value of the information against the ease of staying under the radar, all the while doubting her father’s grip on reality. But in a world where nothing makes sense, what is sanity? Despite the dire circumstances, Marya’s passion for music and desire for a normal teenage life shine through. Flipping through new record albums is just as suspenseful and full of discovery as a chase scene with guns drawn. This atmospheric, suspenseful story is one of devotion and deception, innocence and independence, friendship and love, music and dance, immigration and coming of age. With its language and overall sense of unease, this debut should have multifaceted appeal.
December 13, 2013 - Nadine, ISB
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls - Legrand, Claire (2012)
From: Booklist (December 1, 2012 (Online)
Grades 4-7. The town of Belleville likes things to be perfect, and no one is more in agreement than 12-year-old Victoria: perfect student, perfect daughter. She takes on a fellow classmate—the imperfect Lawrence—as a project, but he’s also her only friend, so when he disappears, the determined Victoria sets out to find him. She knows where to look, too: the home for orphan boys and girls run by the seemingly sweet but truly diabolical Mrs. Cavendish. First-time author Legrand sets everything up beautifully, but once Victoria gets scooped up by Mrs. Cavendish, the story descends into something more ugly than scary, especially when Victoria is thrown into the “hanger” to be assaulted with disgusting bugs and sad visions. Nor do the reasons for Mrs. Cavendish’s actions ever make much sense. Even sadists usually have a story they tell to justify themselves. Still, this has many of the elements that endeared readers to books like Roald Dahl’s Matilda (1988) and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events titles. It’s also a handsome piece of bookmaking, with the art adding much to the package.December 13, 2013 - Nadine, ISB
Etiquette & Espionage - Gail Carriger (2013)
From Follett:
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.
Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore.